Imagine a garden party on a quiet cul de sac. Adults kick back on the patio with freshly-made mimosas, kids dig in the garden for interesting bugs to gross one another out, and above them looms the gaping maw of a sharp-toothed, black steel dinosaur. Sometimes, the little ones offer it a bug. "My mom passed away in February," said Alison Lytle. "I think my stepdad gave her the dinosaur as a gift. She collected fossils, so it would fit in with the mandibles, sea creatures and amazing rocks she had inside. It's such a mystery. You wouldn't think it'd be that hard to find the artist - how many …

Imagine it's the Roaring Twenties. Down in Chicago, a flapper sneaks into a speakeasy to sip moonshine from a teacup. When the gin joint closes, she changes back into her maid's uniform and rides the train back to the safety of Highland Park, where her weekly pay includes lodgings in a cottage tucked into her employer's back yard.Most of these cottages have been torn down over the years, but Joe Gibson and his wife decided to restore theirs to its original glory. That included a vintage white and green enamel Roper brand stove. The couple is selling it for $199."I'm letting it go because once…

Imagine a retro diner. There's a black-and-white checkered floor, a chrome-lined booth, a full soda fountain against one wall, pinball machines, a stand-up popcorn machine, a jukebox, and just in case you want to invite your friends out to the sockhop, a soundproof wooden phone booth.  Instead of serving food, this blast from the past was a theme room taking up 2,000 square feet of Highland Park resident Robert Eiseman's basement. "It was mostly for my kids," Eiseman explained. "I have four children, and when it came time for sleepovers, they were the most popular kids in school." Now that …